The main character of this rather short manga-style graphic novel is Hana, an extremely shy high school girl who doesn’t really talk to anyone but her imaginary friend, Avril Lavigne. Not that Lavigne is imaginary – just that Hana talks to her as if she is there, even though she knows that she’s not. Hana doesn’t have any friends at school, and her parents are always fighting rather loudly. She spends most of her time listening to Lavigne songs and doing things online, including making up profiles for imaginary people that Hana uses to talk to people in her life – such as her teacher or other students at school. One day, she comes across a website – make5wishes.com – that she dismisses at first, but then keeps coming back to over the next few days. Eventually, she orders a wish-granting package from the website, and everything gets even more complicated.

I’m not really sure that I outright liked or disliked this book. Insofar as young adult manga is concerned, it wasn’t bad – the graphics were interesting and stylistically reflected the mood of the story, and lots of teenagers could really relate to a character who has problems at home, is lonely, and doesn’t really connect to anyone else. Even the obsession with Avril Lavigne works, but the way Hana talks to her as if she is there is a little … weird.

The end of this volume has a bit of a cliffhanger leading into the next book, where the theme of “be careful what you wish for” is really starting to come into play. If I see the next volume somewhere I can borrow it from, I might pick it up and continue reading – but this is definitely not a series that I would search for the rest of on purpose.

4 Comments

The title seems to be a tad misleading, it sounds like AL actually had a hand in writing the book when that isn’t the case. Don’t think it’s one for me but I definitely get your curiousity about where this series is going.